That\u2019s why, in recent years, state policy has pushed toward electrification, and about 39% of new homes<\/a> in California in 2024 went in without gas lines. Only 8% of all homes were all-electric<\/a> in 2020. <\/p>\n Yet after last year\u2019s fires, Gov. Gavin Newsom waived a 2025 building code<\/a> that strongly encouraged electric heat pumps in new construction, allowing residents in the burn zones to build back to older, less efficient standards. <\/p>\n The city of L.A. also waived a requirement that new homes be all-electric. <\/p>\n Climate experts called these rollbacks a missed opportunity.<\/a> Early figures show 1,300 residents have already have applied for reconnections through SoCalGas, which serves most of Los Angeles. <\/p>\n Yet some determined groups of neighbors are building all-electric anyway, even without the requirements. Here are some of their reasons: <\/p>\n Neighbors building passive homes in Altadena<\/p>\n Leo Cheng is part of a group of about 10 Eaton fire survivors working together to build passive homes in Altadena.<\/p>\n Felipe Jimenez, a construction foreman, reads plans for a new home on East Mariposa Street in Altadena on Friday. <\/p>\n (Gary Coronado \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n A passive house is airtight and highly insulated, designed to reduce the need for air conditioning and heating to the highest extent possible. <\/p>\n Cheng, who previously lived in a home with a gas stove, furnace and water heater, became interested in the concept when he learned that it could keep out more smoke and toxic ash during a fire.<\/p>\n He sees passive homes as going hand in hand with all-electric appliances, because \u201cwith airtight construction, having a gas stove in the house especially doesn\u2019t make sense\u201d for indoor<\/a> air quality<\/a>. <\/p>\n Cheng was one of the western Altadena residents who received evacuation orders late<\/a> on Jan. 7, 2025. He remembers rushing out of his house in the middle of the night without time to turn off the gas, so he also likes the idea of reducing fire risk by eliminating it all together. <\/p>\n Leo Cheng, 60, on the site where he lived with his wife in a 1960s California ranch home on East Calaveras Street in Altadena.<\/p>\n (Gary Coronado \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n After going on a passive house tour led by his neighbor Jaime Rodriguez, whom he credits with sparking the passive house movement in Altadena, Cheng became part of a small but growing group that meets once a week to support one another with rebuilding energy-efficient, all-electric homes. A former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer, he has decided to become a passive house consultant. <\/p>\n Besides indoor air quality, climate change is a big concern.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a firm believer that climate change played a big role in how intense and how widespread these fires were,\u201d Cheng said. \u201cUsing fossil fuel in this day and age is not a good idea.\u201d <\/p>\n Companies building all-electric catalog homes<\/p>\n Building a custom-designed home can bring an array of hurdles. For those looking for a simpler and more affordable approach, the Foothill Catalog Foundation offers pre-approved, all-electric home designs in styles that honor the architectural legacy of Altadena. <\/p>\n Local architects Cynthia Sigler and Alex Athenson took inspiration from early 20th century Sears catalogs<\/a> that sold homes as kits when they founded the nonprofit last year. <\/p>\n They\u2019re already working with 11 families with homes under construction, and have 50 more signed on to build their catalog homes.<\/p>\n Athenson said they didn\u2019t set out to design their models all-electric but decided to go that route for health and safety reasons. Another factor was the money and time they could save clients by cutting out the need for two utility hookups. <\/p>\n A sign in front of the home of Leo Cheng announcing that an all-electric home will be built where his home burned down during the Eaton fire.<\/p>\n (Gary Coronado \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n According to the Building Decarbonization Coalition, an electrification advocacy group, all-electric homes cost $3,000 to $10,000 less<\/a> to build than mixed fuel homes in Los Angeles. That savings helps when it comes to buying appliances like heat pumps, which are the most efficient but tend to be more expensive up front. <\/p>\n The heat pump will yield lower utility bills for summer cooling because they use far less electricity than traditional air conditioners. They create winter heat bill savings<\/a> in L.A. too. <\/p>\n The biggest question Athenson gets from clients is about electric cooking, especially when they\u2019re used to cooking with gas. But he said concerns usually fall away when they learn more about induction stoves. \u201cIf you ask most chefs, that\u2019s the most dialed-in, precise way to cook,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Genesis Builders LA is also offering fixed-price, pre-approved catalog homes in Altadena, with models that can be all-electric or use gas. Builder Devang Shah said he\u2019s working with about 30 fire survivors, half of whom opted for all-electric.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people have preferences for gas cooking and the look of a gas-lit fireplace,\u201d said Shah. But all his clients will use electric heat pumps for space and water heating. Although the state waived a requirement that all new homes have solar for the burn areas, they still must be solar-ready. Shah\u2019s models all come with solar and that, he said, helps heat pumps pencil out every time. <\/p>\n An incentive program for all-electric rebuilds<\/p>\n After a long delay, a $22-million incentive program<\/a> launched on April 6 to support residents rebuilding all-electric in California disaster areas served by investor-owned utilities like Southern California Edison. Customers can qualify for $7,000 to $10,000 in subsidies, with more available for low-income fire survivors and bonuses for batteries and passive homes. <\/p>\n In just the first 10 days, 116 people from Altadena applied.<\/p>\n A plan for a new home along East Altadena Drive.<\/p>\n (Gary Coronado \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which serves most of the Palisades, also has a rebate program<\/a> for electric wildfire rebuilds, with subsidies for all-electric homes or individual appliances. <\/p>\n Reza Akef, a builder in the Palisades and chair of the Pacific Palisades Community Council\u2019s Infrastructure Committee, said people do consider these incentives in deciding what appliances to buy. On the other hand,<\/a> SoCalGas offers wildfire rebates for more energy-efficient gas appliances<\/a>. More than 1,100 households have enrolled.<\/p>\n About 90% of Akef\u2019s 45 Palisades clients will keep gas. He said the fuel is faster for pool and spa heating, where electric heat pumps are more energy-efficient than gas but heat the water more slowly. Some of his clients feel a gas line will boost the resale value of their home, he said, and others have concerns about relying on one electric utility if the power goes out. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for Newsom said California is \u201caggressively pursuing widespread electrification\u201d but would not burden survivors with \u201cadditional mandates and red tape.\u201d Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 office said she was giving Palisadians \u201coptions of how they want to rebuild,\u201d with fire resiliency at the forefront.<\/p>\n Kari Weaver is an interior designer who lost her home in the Palisades fire and a member of Resilient Palisades, a group that\u2019s advocating all-electric rebuilds. She plans to build an all-electric home with a solar and battery system in case of blackouts. But she\u2019ll keep a gas line on the property and is still deciding if she\u2019ll connect it to her pool. She\u2019s looking into options like a cover that insulates the water, hybrid heaters and new electric heating models. <\/p>\n \u201cThese types of appliances are getting better all the time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No one is forcing fire survivors in Altadena and Pacific Palisades to rebuild their new homes all-electric. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[118730,118729,5759,7,9,8,8533,118731,118727,3802,3288,756,1073,118728,42344,8320,315,44421],"class_list":["post-274033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-all-electric-appliance","tag-all-electric-home","tag-altadena","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-client","tag-determined-group","tag-electric-heat-pump","tag-fire","tag-fire-survivor","tag-gas","tag-home","tag-leo-cheng","tag-new-home","tag-palisades","tag-time","tag-water-heating"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Felipe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776507608_962_.jpeg\")
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